chowchows

Not a hater, just saying what I have seen in several places..didn't say it was gospel truth. Some of the people on other boards who go to doctors in America act as if those of us who went to Mexico or Europe went to the scourge of the Earth doctors, and that seems to be ok to say. As someone who has lived all around the world, in several different countries, I know that there is bad health care all over the world, including America. Dr. Watkins has some really positive points, mainly that he was willing to talk to people on a message board and give assistance and the fact that he is local for some people. That being said, personally I would go to Mexico all over again if given the choice between him or a doctor in Mexico. That is just my personal opinion, just as there are certain doctors where I live that I would not go to for general care. It's a matter of personal perception and preference. I know there are a couple of people on this board that used Dr. Watkins and and are very happy with their surgeries and I think that's great. As far as I know I am the only one (willing to admit at least, lol) on this board that went to dr. verboonen, so sometimes I feel like he is seen as 'one of those docs'. I researched a lot, made my decision and don't get my panties in a wad over what others might think of my choice of docs. Read back through my 200+ posts before you slam me over one post. I'm guessing you had your surgery with Watkins, or are thinking about it. Make an educated decision and don't worry what others on a message board think about your decision...if you do worry you will have to quit your job and spend all your time on the Internet defending it, because someone, somewhere, will ALWAYS see it different than you do. Best of luck with everything!

At the end of August I was starting to notice an appreciable amount of hair loss. Right about that time I started having gallbladder issues and had to change my diet to almost no fat. In order to do that, I started drinking protein shakes again for lunch (then eating VERY carefully amongst a select few low fat items for dinner and snacks). I think the increased protein slowed my hair loss. It is much less noticeable than it was two months ago. If I notice it falling out again I am going to try increasing my protein (I was taking in around the 60-80 grams my doc recommended after the initial surgery, but I had gotten kind of lazy with that during the summer and was only taking in about 40-50 grams) and see if it helps!

Hey Lena, How are you doing these days? You've been on my mind lately. Hope all is well..just haven't heard from you in awhile! CC

Just over two weeks out from surgery and going for my checkup. I am happy to report that I am able to wear tight jeans again and eat most anything I want. I develop a lot of gas and burp a lot, but I can live with that. Life is much better without the GB and all the fun issues it was throwing at me!

I am just now (5 months) at the point where I can eat steak. I have been eating ground sirloin from the beginning of my real food journey, but the doc told me that steak is very hard to digest so I have stayed away from it. Maybe the sirloin was less tender than the ribeye? Even now I will occasionally have something that my stomach doesn't like. When I do that I wait a couple of weeks and try again, and it's usually ok the second time around. My doc told me I wouldn't be fully healed until after 6 months out, and I would run into issues like this from time to time. (of course with the gallbladder issues I took several steps back with my diet, as I wasn't able to digest much between August and late Sept...I'm pretty much back to where I was before though now.)

Hang in there...this is normal. I think we all went through this between 2 and 3 weeks out. Take it from a very inpatient person, it will start moving again.

I had heard that he says that patients that go to other countries for their surgeries need to be punished. I heard that he charges like 5 times the amount for fills for patients who had their band or banded/plication done in another country, in order to 'punish' them. Not sure if that's true (as I don't have a band and have never even talked to his office) but some people on another board were talking about it.

I didn't know he had TWO ...I had only heard about the one!

Hi there, I replied to your other post in the other thread. Just wanted to add, if you do not get it out during the first surgery and you start having problems later on, I personally would insist they take it out as soon as it causes you ANY pain. Don't wait until you actually start passing stones, as that can permanently damage your pancreas and/or liver if they get stuck and block the ducts. In fact it can even kill you if you develop pancreatitis that affects your kidneys or heart. It's rare, but it's still not something you want to mess around with from what some of my nurses in the hospital told me. One of my nurses mentioned that they had just lost an 18 year old boy to it, but I think he let it go a LONG time before coming in to the hospital. I'm just hoping that as I heal they find that none of my damage is permanent, but I am still angry that they let it go for so long and let me endure so much pain. I don't mean to scare you...I am actually doing pretty good now. I just want to stress that sometimes you have to stand up for yourself and look out for yourself when it comes to health care. Take care!

I have read that there is such a thing as "innocent" gallstones. Basically, if they are not causing you any trouble, the recommendation is to leave them(according to what I have read on the Internet). WLS is a culprit (and any weight loss in general, or just being overweight in the first place) in developing gallstones, and if you already have them and they are not causing you trouble, your doc might think that there is no reason to perform another surgery unnecessarily. That being said, if you are having any trouble, I would talk to him about it again. Looking back, I realize that I was having pains from my GB as far back as January (had surgery the end of April). I just thought they were muscle pains in my back. They actually went away for awhile after my surgery (I'm sure from the reduced fat in my diet post plication). Knowing what I know now though, I probably should have had it out with my plication, as it was already causing issues. You can also try to request a HIDA scan to see if your GB is functioning. If it's not, your doc might take that into consideration and re-think taking it out at the same time, or he may still say no. I'm not a doc, but if you are not having any issues right now and you already have the stones, and your doctor thinks you don't need to remove the GB, then he probably has a pretty good reason for not messing with it. Whatever you and your doc decide, I wish you the best of luck!

Thanks for all the well wishes! I am feeling much better today. No issues with anything I have eaten and the soreness is almost gone.

It could be that...or it could be that there was never a ton of restriction to begin with. I've never been one of the ones who felt like they could only eat a couple of bites. I've never vomited or gotten sick after 'eating too much', so who knows. I'm not unhappy with it though. I've lost 45 lbs in 5 months with little to no effort on my part, so I can't complain.

The one in the top of my navel is slightly bigger than my largest plication scar, but the others are tiny...about the size of the smallest plication scar. Four of my plication scars are barely noticeable, so hopefully these will fade fast too.

No, the doc thinks I had the stones for awhile before the plication. I have only had the plication 5 months and he said stones take minimum of 6 months to form to the level mine were. They didn't really say anything about watching the fat consumption, but based on what I have researched I should be. I really have been lucky-my post surgery eating experiences have been wonderful...a lot of people cannot tolerate much post GB surgery, even long term. I feel so much better in that way than I have in about a month and a half! Even if I didn't have an actual attack, I was in pain every day before I had it out.

Well, I knew it was coming, but I wasn't planning on it to happen like this. After I got out of the hospital last time all the docs kept telling me that I shouldn't still be in pain and "just don't eat high fat and you'll be ok". They all told me I needed my gallbladder removed, but their offices and schedules were booked through the end of October so that is the time period we were looking at for everything to happen. In the mean time I have been having an average of one attack a week, and if anyone has ever had a gallbladder attack/stone you know that this is absolute misery. I was eating zero fat somedays and still had attacks on those days. I've never had kids, but others have equated it to being in continuous labor, with no contraction breaks, and no pain meds. Last week another attack came on and just continued to get worse and worse into the wee hours of the morning. I finally decided to take the hydrocodone the GI doc prescribed when I last saw him, totally expecting it to knock me out and make me nauseous and dizzy as all pain killers do, and it did NOTHING! That's when I got scared. I got so weak from the sweating and constant spasms for hours that I couldn't even get up by myself. I called me husband into the bedroom (he was up and expecting the trip to the ER) and asked him to help me put on a loose t-shirt and shorts (I couldn't even do that by myself) and take me to the ER. At the ER they shot me full of the strongest thing they had and it made the pain manageable. (I think I have a fairly high pain tolerance..I used zero pain killers after my hyst years ago and felt like I could have left the hospital hours after the surgery) They re-did the ultrasound and CT and told me that my GB was totally full of tiny stones and now my pancreas AND my liver enzymes were up and they were worried. I was admitted in the wee hours of the morning and spent two days waiting for the enzyme levels to come down. Finally on the third day they were down enough and within 30 minutes of the blood test I was being wheeled into surgery. The surgeon told me that it was so inflamed that the GB was stuck to everything and very enlarged, as was the cystic duct. Luckily they were still able to do it laprascopically. I woke up with four new holes on my stomach and one less GB. I was up and talking to everyone 5 minutes into recovery, but the pain is still pretty severe even now, several days later. I stayed another day and a half in the hospital. My back still aches somewhat and deep breathes are painful, but it is so much better than where I have been for the last month. In addition, I have now come to realize that the pain I thought was reflux, and even the pains I was having for a few days in July, were all GB related. The GB not working was causing me not to digest my food properly, which in combination with a new smaller stomach was causing me immense pain in my stomach/bowels. The surgeon did also tell me that he looked at my stomach while in there and it looked suprizingly good , but that there really wasn't a whole lot of restriction to it. . Oh well, it has been a helpful tool..I did find out while in the hospital the first time that my cholesterol is now normal (down 83 points) and my blood pressure is normal to low. I'm still losing, and I'm not totally unhappy where I am, so while the plication hasn't turned out to be exactly what I was anticipating, I'm still overall happy. My doc told me that stones take at least six months to form...so that means I had the stones pre-surgery. For all the lurkers that are thinking about wls, my advice is to get your gallbladder checked prior to your surgery and possibly save yourself some pain, time, and expense by taking care of it with just one surgery! Hopefully now I can focus on healing and get back to my life...I really feel like I missed out on the whole month of September!

Long time lurker, first time poster (on this board. I'm a plicator so I always post on Sleeveplicationtalk.com). Spent the first few days of this month in the hospital with what turned out to be pancreatitis. MRI/CT revealed small stones and sludge in gallbladder and was told it would have to come out once pancreas enzymes reached normal. They think I passed a stone and it lodged in the common duct of the pancreas/GB, but they did not see anything still there when they did the MRI. Fast forward a couple of weeks, and I am still waiting on surgery. Now that I am not dying from pancreatitis they are taking their sweet time and it looks like it will be Oct before I get it out. I have near constant pain on my right side that gets worse when I do any kind of activity. The problem is that I am also having some stomach pain and GI thinks I might have another problem so he wants to do an endoscopy before they take out GB. I have had three attacks (where I think I was trying to pass a stone) in the last three weeks. Even afterwards my muscles around my chest are so sore and tight that it hurts to wear a bra. It almost always gets worse as night comes. I am so over this...I just want it out. Did anyone else have pain also in their stomach area? It's not constant, and I know that the buildup of gas that comes from GB issues isn't helping, but it's more than that. After you had your GB out, did the pain/issues end immediately? Can anyone recommend anything that helps when you are having an attack? I am eating almost no fat, but still having them. I guess that makes sense though since I am losing weight and that is putting fat/cholesterol through my GB every day. Thanks for the info/advice.

Tried that dress on the other day and it pretty much fits..only problem is that the stomach is still tight, but the cleavage I had in it even one month ago is MIA!

Lol, I've been trying to figure out a way to use the ninja emoticon...he's great!

I'm not really scared of the surgery. I had a hyst many years ago and that was easy, so not too scared...just worried that the pain might not go away immediately since the pancreas has been affected. When you google abdominal pain you find all these stories of people who have had on-going, untreatable abdominal pain for years. Of course that just gets my imagination working overtime! I need to step away from the computer, lol!

I'm trying to see the positive side of life with all that's been going on. Stepped on the scale today and I am down to 217...43 lbs lost, which puts me exactly halfway to my goal of 174 (just counting post surgery weight).

LOL, I was just looking at this last night after I posted on our board. Great minds think alike. Honestly, at this point I am almost ready to take it out myself with a butter knife.

Kidney stones sound really scary! Is the pain instantly gone after they zap them?

Your doc sounds cool. I feel like I'm just stuck in a painful limbo right now with too many docs all going different directions.

Just curious if anyone on here has had gallbladder surgery? If so, did it totally get rid of the pain right away, or did it still take awhile for everything to settle down?

Don't you love the get off/get back on 'check the scale' move?! LOL! Congrats! Hopefully not much longer till we are both in Onederland!!!